ARTISTS FROM LATVIA ON THE MAP OF LATE 19TH AND EARLY 20TH CENTURY EUROPE: A GLIMPSE INTO THE ROUTES, FORMS AND RESULTS OF THEIR MIGRATION (Latvijas makslinieki Eiropas karte 19. gs. beigas un 20. gs. sakuma: Ieskats migracijas marsrutos, izpausmes u

Latvia still marked the border of the Russian Empire's Baltic provinces and a nation state had yet to spring from the Latvian-inhabited parts of the tsarist realm. Focusing on locally unknown information sources, the undertaken survey shows this aspect of art history as a promising field for future research and allows us to dispute some oversimplified assumptions about artistic migration. Furthermore, it helps to place the emigre life of painter Johann Walter-Kurau (1869-1932) in a context of related developments. The address register in the catalogue of the Latvian Art Exhibition 1910 lists Riga 12 times, St. Petersburg - 11 times, minor Latvian towns and country places - 4 times, Jelgava - twice and Paris - once, but works by three artists were exhibited after their death. If we include those who were just seasonal residents in their native country, the number of Parisians alone would exceed that of the Jelgava artists, provincial artists and posthumous exhibitors. It should be remembered though, that their sojourn in the French capital was usually financed by post-graduate travel grants from the Stieglitz Central School of Technical Drawing, a rich private college of decorative arts and design in St. Petersburg. One of the lucky grant winners was Karlis Brencens (1879-1951), who went to study stained glass with Felix Gaudin. He recorded his Paris period in stylised sketches and made friends with Hermengildo Anglada Camarasa. One of those who set off for Paris, was a painter from Talsi, Frederic (originally Friedrich) Fiebig (1885-1953) whose 'long road from Latvia to Alsace' comprised a Paris period of more than two decades (1907-1929).